Page:Statement of My Property and Debts, with Remarks.djvu/3

My chief apology is due to those friends, who have from mere kindness endorsed my paper discounted at the Banks. On mature reflection I have thought it jusfiable to secure them in preference other creditors, lest perchance there should be a deficit. Yet while this may save them from eventual loss, it will not exempt them from some present inconvenience. As to this I can only throw myself upon their kindness and entreat the indulgence of the Banks for them. Perhaps this request may be supposed entitled to some regard.

In the event, which would bring this paper to the public eye, one thing at least would be put beyond a doubt. This is, that my public labours have amounted to absolute sacrifice of the interests of my family—and that in all pecuniary concerns, the delicacy, no less than the probity of my conduct on public stations, has been such as to defy even the shadow of a question.

Indeed, I have not enjoyed the ordinary advantages incident to my military services. Being a member of Congress, while the question of the commutation of the half pay of the army for a sum in gross was in debate, delicacy and a desire to be useful to the army, by removing the idea of my having an interest in the question, induced me to write to the Secretary of War and relinquish my claim to half pay; which, in the equivalent, I have accordingly never received. Neither have I ever applied for the land, allowed by the United States to officers of my rank. Nor did I ever obtain from this State the allowance of land, made to officers of similar rank. It is true that having served through the latter period of the War on the general staff of the UStates and in the line of the State, I could not claim that allowance as a matter of course. But having before the War resided in this State and having entered the military